Sharon Bonifaz
September 21, 2016
The Study of Race and Biology
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| Huffington Post |
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| Force Change |
In order to understand the relationship between race as a sociological concept and race as a scientific concept, one can refer to genetic genealogy testing. For many years, the notion of race has been tied to biology which has ultimately resulted in the classification of racial groups. However, after years of extensive research it is evident that race is in fact a social invention and a biological myth because no genetic factors can determine race. Yet, race continues to be associated with biology for several reasons one being that phenotypes varies across different bodies.
Nonetheless, Pilar
Ossorio’s statement in the film Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1, is
evidence that no genetic marker can classify people into racial groups, thus
proving no biological ties to race. This is demonstrated by a group of students
who sequenced a small sample of their mitochondrial DNA. By doing so, the
mitochondrial DNA which is only inherited by the mother and does not contain
any traits, will work as a gate to trace back to the mother’s ancestry. When
the results were done, the small sequence samples were more identical between
two people from two different racial groups rather than two people within the
same racial group. Regardless of the human biological variation, this goes to
prove that all humans are genetically alike.
Nonetheless, being born in
the United States and having parents that come from Ecuador, I have always
identified as Hispanic/Latino American. Though my mother’s side of the family
can easily be mistaken as White because of their pale skin, green/blue eyes,
and blonde hair, my father is always attributed to being Hispanic/Latino.
However, I have been attributed to being Asian, or Hispanic/Latino, and White.
Although it is exciting to get different answers when I ask strangers to guess
my racial identity, it is also troubling when I think about being a
Hispanic/Latina in the work force. Since being a female already comes with a
wage gap, being a female and not White will be more of a struggle in today’s
society.
According to Sullivan’s Racial
Identity and Intergroup Attitudes, “for many whites, race does not play a
consequential role in their daily lives” (263). Whereas, on the contrary,
colored people in Brazil often associate a lighter skin tone with increasing
social status (Lovell, 90). Proving that skin color is an important factor in
today’s society, and also that the preferred color skin is tied to Whites,
because they are least likely to face discrimination and poverty. This is
evident since the dominant group is Whites and the minorities are people who
can fall under Blacks and Hispanic/Latinos. However, what is outrageous and
discouraging is that our external features are ultimately the deciding factor
used to place people into racial groups. Though race will always be a
biological myth, society will always find a way to classify humans and relate
it to biology so that the social construct of race may be justified. In terms
of my own racial identity, I will not let society discourage me and as a
minority I will take pride in my future success.
References
Lovell, P. A., & Wood, C. H. (1998). Skin color, racial identity, and life chances in Brazil. Latin
American Perspectives, 25(3), 90+.
Sullivan, J. M., & Ghara, A. (2015). Racial Identity and Intergroup Attitudes: A Multiracial
Youth Analysis. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 96(1), 261-272.
Further Reading
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